My Robot Teacher

Ep19 - The Math of Thinking Together — with David Spivak 16.09.2026 47min

Applied category theorist and Topos Institute co-founder David Spivak joins Sarah and Taiyo to explore the mathematics of thinking together. They begin with a question that runs through the episode: when does a resemblance between two fields become useful enough to carry knowledge from one into the other? From epidemics and information to the institutional conditions for adopting AI, they explore how recognizing shared structures can open up questions we would not otherwise know to ask.David explains why he helped build an independent research institute around teaching, interdisciplinary work, and practical applications; how “ontology logs,” or Ologs, make our mental models explicit; and why two eyes offer such a useful analogy for collective intelligence. In the closing conversation, Sarah and Taiyo show how they put these ideas to work: recording their discussions, using AI to examine the transcripts, and correcting its interpretations together. A lengthy disagreement about learning becomes a concrete example of how people can hear the same word, mean different things, and gradually learn to understand each other.Also in this episode:What disease transmission and information spread can teach us about borrowing models across disciplinesAI adoption as a phase transition: early adopters, connected groups, and institutional conditionsWhen an analogy becomes useful—and why mathematical isomorphism is a more precise ideaWhy optimizing individual parts can create friction across a systemFunctors and ologs: translating between mental models and making their structure visibleThe practical difficulty of turning everyday relationships into formal modelsWhat gardening can teach us about abstraction and cultivating learning“Always be recording”: using a conversation archive to trace assumptions and revisit disagreementsWhy AI mediation becomes useful through shared review, correction, and iterationCHAPTERS00:00-11:58 - Chapter 1 Introduction: Same Shape, Different Domains11:59-16:31 - Chapter 2 Topos Institute and a Different Model for Research16:32-25:01 - Chapter 3 What Is Applied Category Theory?25:01-28:10 - Chapter 4 Collective Sensemaking and Translating Perspectives28:11-35:44 - Chapter 5 Ologs: Making Mental Models Explicit35:45-40:04 - Chapter 6 Seeing Analogies More Easily40:04-47:31 - Chapter 7 Always Be Recording: Revisiting Conversations and Learning to Think TogetherMy Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, produced by editaudio, and funded by the California Education Learning Lab, incentivizing innovation in teaching and learning in California’s public higher education.📄 Full transcripts available on Substack: https://calearninglab.substack.com/s/my-robot-teacher-podcast🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai📨 Email us! [email protected]🔔 Subscribe for extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacherFollow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrobotteacher/X: https://x.com/myrobotteacherBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/myrobotteacher.bsky.socialFacebook: https://facebook.com/myrobotteacherTags/Keywords:David Spivak, category theory, applied category theory, Topos Institute, cross-disciplinary analogies, cross-domain isomorphisms, collective intelligence, AI in education, higher education, AI adoption, diffusion of innovation, phase transitions, abstraction, ontology, ologs, mental models, AI mediation, conversation transcripts, Codex, ChatGPT, Claude, My Robot Teacher, Sarah Senk, Taiyo Inoue, California Education Learning Lab

Ep18 - What Should Students Still Struggle Through? OpenAI’s Leah Belsky on AI, Agency, and Education’s Future 02.09.2026 50min

What kinds of struggle are essential to learning and what kinds of drudgery should we be happy to hand off to AI?Leah Belsky, who leads education at OpenAI, joins My Robot Teacher to talk about one of the hardest questions facing educators in the age of AI: where to draw the line between productive friction and work that technology can usefully remove. Drawing on her work at OpenAI, her experience at Coursera, and her own life as a parent, Belsky makes the case for preserving the forms of difficulty that actually build understanding while using AI to make learning more accessible, personalized, and manageable.The conversation then widens beyond the individual student to explore what AI might enable at the level of classrooms and groups: collective intelligence, project-based learning, new forms of critique and collaboration, and learning environments in which students become builders rather than spectators. They also discuss age-appropriate guardrails, why secondary education may need to become more interdisciplinary and maker-oriented, what the United States might learn from Estonia’s approach to technology and teacher agency, and why educators who are worried about AI need to engage with it rather than retreat from the conversation.Also in this episode:Where the line falls between productive struggle and educational drudgeryColumbia’s CAiSEY project and using AI to make case-based learning more interactiveOpenAI’s new tools for study planning, flashcards, quizzes, and other student workflowsWhy Belsky would not put general-purpose chatbots in the hands of young childrenThe case for teaching high school students to build and create with AIMoving the unit of AI design from the individual learner to the classroom and collective intelligenceHow AI can make project-based and collaborative learning possible at much greater scaleUsing AI as a “seminar secretary” to understand how groups think and learn togetherWhy AI may blur traditional professional roles and push education toward greater interdisciplinarityWhat Estonia’s approach to privacy, teacher empowerment, and student responsibility might teach the United StatesWhy treating AI only as a productivity or cost-cutting tool could undermine educationWhy educators need firsthand experience with current AI systems before they can meaningfully shape their useCHAPTERS0:00-6:40 - Chapter 1 Introduction: What Should We Delegate to AI?6:40-10:23 - Chapter 2 Leah Belsky’s Journey to OpenAI and the Promise of Accessibility10:23-16:58 - Chapter 3 Drudgery vs. Productive Struggle16:59-20:35 - Chapter 4 Age-Appropriate AI and Rethinking Secondary Education20:35-29:59 - Chapter 5 From Individual Agency to Collective Intelligence30:00-40:05 - Chapter 6 Estonia, the United States, and Two Cultures of Educational Technology40:07-44:28 - Chapter 7 Risk, Equity, and Why Educators Have to Engage44:29-50:34 - Chapter 8 Reflections: Codex, Canvas, and the Faculty AI EpiphanyMy Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, produced by editaudio, and funded by the California Education Learning Lab, incentivizing innovation in teaching and learning in California’s public higher education.📄 Full transcripts available on Substack: https://calearninglab.substack.com/s/my-robot-teacher-podcast🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai📨 Email us! [email protected]🔔 Subscribe for extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher

Ep17 - Why UC San Diego Runs Its Own AI: Chancellor Pradeep Khosla on Higher Education’s Future 19.08.2026 55min

UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla joins My Robot Teacher to explain why large public universities need to move faster on AI, and why “mandated coordination” may be the wrong way to get there.An internationally renowned electrical and computer engineer and co-chair of the University of California’s AI Steering Committee, Khosla has pushed one of the world’s leading public research universities to build its own AI infrastructure and experiment with new forms of teaching and student support.Khosla takes My Robot Teacher co-hosts Sarah and Taiyo inside UC San Diego’s approach to AI innovation, from building TritonGPT on university-owned computing infrastructure to developing AI tutoring that dramatically reduced failure rates in gateway math courses. He makes the case for shared institutional goals paired with decentralized experimentation: giving faculty, students, and staff the freedom to test ideas, fail quickly, and circulate what they learn.Also in this episode: Skunkworks,” rapid experimentation, and the value of failing quicklyHow AI could make personalized education available at a scale universities could never previously affordWhy public universities may need to rethink degrees, short-term credentials, and workforce reskillingWhat residential education still offers when individualized instruction can happen anywhereHow AI could become both a great equalizing force and a driver of new inequality0:00-6:08 - Chapter 1 Introduction6:09-12:20 - Chapter 2 Triton GPT12:21-16:43 - Chapter 3 Buy or Rent?16:48-22:07 - Chapter 4 UCSD’s AI Skunkworks22:08-24:39 - Chapter 5 Workforce Upskilling24:40-27:46 - Chapter 6 Residential Life in Education27:47-32:48 - Chapter 7 Elite but Not Elitist Education32:49-41:31 - Chapter 8 College Preparedness Gaps41:32-45:33 Chapter 9 Remaining Questions45:33-55:52 Chapter 10 Reflections on Mandated Coordination My Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, sponsored by the California Education Learning Lab, and produced by editaudio.📄 Full transcripts available on Substack: https://calearninglab.substack.com/s/my-robot-teacher-podcast 🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai 📨 Email us! [email protected] 🔔 Subscribe for extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacherFollow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrobotteacher/ X: https://x.com/myrobotteacher Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/myrobotteacher.bsky.social Facebook: https://facebook.com/myrobotteacher

Ep16 - Is Learning to Code Still Worth It? John DeNero on Computational Thinking in the Age of AI 05.08.2026 1h 9min

AI can write code, and it writes it well. So what remains worth teaching? UC Berkeley computer scientist John DeNero joins Sarah and Taiyo to make the case for computational thinking — abstraction, decomposition, and the intuition that tells you when an output is wrong — as general education rather than vocational training. Along the way: why programmers get more out of AI coding tools than non-programmers, what an “AI agent” actually is, and why a CS degree is becoming less like a trade and more like a discipline.

Ep15 - How Can Higher Education Keep Up With AI? C. Edward Watson on Curriculum Reform 20.07.2026 53min

C. Edward Watson, Vice President for Digital Innovation at AAC&U and coauthor of Teaching with AI, joins Sarah and Taiyo to ask how colleges can prepare students for an AI-shaped workplace when both the technology and the workplace itself are still changing. They discuss curricular agility, discipline-specific AI literacy, cognitive sovereignty, and why institutional context should shape how universities teach with AI.

Ep14 - Why Students Trust ChatGPT: Dr. Julie Carpenter on AI Literacy, Attachment, and Human Learning 30.06.2026 1h 1min

When universities adopt AI at scale, do students learn to treat tools like ChatGPT as authoritative and trustworthy? Dr. Julie Carpenter joins Sarah and Taiyo to unpack AI in education through a sociotechnical lens and ask whether AI literacy can keep up with systems that invite our trust, emotional disclosure, and attachment.

Ep13 - How to Talk About AI in Higher Education: April Lawson on Insight Debate & Dialogue 29.05.2026 57min

What are faculty and students actually saying about AI when they are given a structured space to speak honestly? In this episode of My Robot Teacher, Sarah and Taiyo talk with April Lawson, co-founder of Insight Debate & Dialogue, about what she has learned from facilitating structured conversations about AI across colleges and universities. Her work brings faculty, students, staff, and administrators into rooms where the debate can move past pro-AI and anti-AI camps and toward collective sensemaking. Together, they discuss why AI conversations on campuses so often collapse into straw-man versions of “the other side,” how those caricatures make sensible AI policy harder, and what becomes possible when disagreement becomes a source of collective intelligence rather than institutional fracture.My Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, sponsored by the California Education Learning Lab, and produced by editaudio.📄 Full transcripts available on Substack: https://calearninglab.org/myrobotteacher/ 🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai 📨 Email us! [email protected] 🔔 Subscribe for Extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher

Ep12 - Querying the Collective Mind - CrowdSmart Co-Founder Kim Polese on Collective Intelligence 22.04.2026 57min

How can AI summon the wisdom of the crowd without the stupidity of the mob? In Episode 12 of My Robot Teacher, Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue talk with Kim Polese—co-founder of CrowdSmartAI and Common Good AI—about collective intelligence, deliberative tech, and a different vision of AI: not as a machine for generating answers, but as a facilitator that helps groups think better together. From enterprise strategy and citizen assemblies to seminar pedagogy, the conversation explores what happens when AI stops generating answers and becomes a facilitator for collective intelligence: surfacing tacit knowledge, preserving quieter voices, and helping institutions process forms of disagreement that usually disappear into noise.My Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, sponsored by the California Education Learning Lab, and produced by editaudio.📄 Full transcripts available on Substack: https://calearninglab.org/myrobotteacher/ 🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai 📨 Email us! [email protected] 🔔 Subscribe for Extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher

Ep11 - The Opposite of AI Slop: AI, Journalism, and Government Transparency 20.03.2026 51min

What does AI have to do with democracy? More than most people realize. In this episode — recorded on My Robot Teacher's one-year anniversary — we're joined by Kim Bisheff (Journalism, Cal Poly SLO) and Emmy-award winning professor Foaad Khosmood (Computer Engineering, Cal Poly SLO), the team behind the Digital Democracy Project, an AI-powered tool that makes state legislative proceedings searchable, transparent, and accessible to journalists and ordinary citizens alike.In this episode:What the Digital Democracy Project is, how it works, and why it won an EmmyAI as a civic tool: using machine attention to shine light on the government proceedings nobody has time to readWhy AI didn't start with ChatGPT — and why that history matters How Kim uses AI in the journalism classroom to teach story-finding, accountability reporting, and the politics of summarization The hard lessons of the social media era — and how public-interest technologists are trying not to repeat them Jargon as an enemy of transparency — and AI as a potential democratizer of dense government language The difference between AI built for engagement and AI built for the public good "AI is not a monster to be feared. It's a monster to befriend." My Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, sponsored by the California Education Learning Lab, and produced by editaudio. 📄 Full transcripts available on Substack: https://calearninglab.org/myrobotteacher/🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai 📨 Email us! We'd love to hear from you! [email protected]🔔 Subscribe for Extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher

Ep10 - Teaching without a Script: Improv Pedagogy in the Probabilistic Classroom 19.02.2026 57min

What does improv have to do with teaching in the age of AI? More than you might think. In this episode, we’re joined by Julie Simons (Applied Mathematics, UC Santa Cruz) and Pedro Morales (Mathematics, UC Santa Cruz) to talk about improv not as performance, but as pedagogy - and, more broadly, a philosophy of classroom life.In this episode:Why active learning may be a stronger response to AI than surveillance or detection toolsThe case for improv as a philosophy of teaching, and why being wrong out loud might be the most important skill we can model for studentsThe difference between productive struggle and demoralizing struggleEquity concerns around AI access, opt-out students, and who shapes these systemsThe "broken bottom rung" problem: as AI absorbs entry-level jobs, how do students build the experience to eventually reach senior ones?The remediation crisis in California: what happened when the CSU and community college systems My Robot Teacher is produced with support from the California Education Learning Lab. My Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, sponsored by the California Education Learning Lab, and produced by editaudio. 📄 Full transcripts available on Substack: https://calearninglab.org/myrobotteacher/🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai📨 Email us! We'd love to hear from you! [email protected]🔔 Subscribe for Extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher

Ep09 - Resilience Over Right Answers: Rethinking Science Education in the Age of AI (with Biophysicist Jon Sack, UC Davis) 22.01.2026 1h 1min

Science education after ChatGPT: what happens when students can outsource the thinking, and still turn in something that looks right? In this episode of My Robot Teacher, CSU professors Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue talk with UC Davis biophysicist Jon Sack about AI literacy, scientific thinking, and how LLMs are reshaping both the classroom and the day-to-day reality of research.If the most available “mentor” in a student’s life is an LLM optimized to validate, what happens to the virtues science depends on: tolerating disconfirmation, staying curious through failure, and separating confidence from evidence? And if AI can generate the output, what exactly are we teaching - especially when the point is conceptual understanding, not polished answers?In this conversation, we explore:What AI literacy should mean in science classrooms (beyond “don’t cheat”)How to resist the reward of feeling right when LLMs produce fluent, plausible explanations on demandHow to redesign assessment so students can’t simply outsource the thinkingWhat “good” use looks like: prompting for falsification instead of praise, plus habits of verification and iterationWhat AlphaFold and protein design teach us about hypothesis overload, “hallucinations,” and selection under uncertaintyThe bigger meta-question: if we’re co-evolving with AI, how do we keep student agency intact?Ultimately, Jon argues that resilience isn’t a soft skill in science—it’s the method: reality-testing what sounds plausible (including AI-generated ideas) and iterating without outsourcing the thinking.Sponsored by the California Education Learning Lab.💬 Drop your perspective in the comments. We may feature listener takes in a future episode.✅ Subscribe for more “in the wild” classroom experiments and AI literacy for educators.CHAPTERS00:00-6:27 - Chapter 1 - Introduction: Claude Code Built My Canvas Course (Winter Break Experiment) 6:28-10:14 - Chapter 2 - Jon Sack’s First ChatGPT Moment (and the “Too-Positive” AI problem)10:15-12:44 - Chapter 3 - Resilience is the Core Skill in Science12:45-16:08 - Chapter 4 - Scientific Method = Falsification: “Kill Your Darlings” and Reality Testing16:09-19:26 - Chapter 5 - Conceptual Understanding vs. Outsourcing: When the Thinking is the Assignment19:27-25:25 - Chapter 6 - AL Literacy for Students: Use Every Tool, Track Limits25:26-28:22 - Chapter 7 - Inside Jon Sack’s Lab: Ion Channels and Stochastic Decisions28:23-30:36 - Chapter 8 - Stochastic 101: Probability, Sampling, and Why LLMs Vary30:37-38:55 - Chapter 9 - Are We Stochastic All the Way Down? 38:56-44:07 - Chapter 10 - AlphaFold & Protein Design: Cheap Hypotheses, Hallucinations, Verification44:08-53:30 - Chapter 11 - Co-evolving with AI: are tools optimizing around us, and are we changing around them?53:31-1:01:22 Chapter 12 - Education After ChatGPT: Epistemic Virtues, Judgment, and Student Agency

Ep08 - How to Teach AI (Not Just Use It) - with UC Berkeley’s Eric Van Dusen 11.12.2025 52min

What would it look like to teach AI literacy the way UC Berkeley teaches data science? hands-on, interdisciplinary, and open? In this episode of My Robot Teacher, Sarah and Taiyo talk with Eric Van Dusen from Berkeley’s College of Computing, Data Science, and Society about how the wildly successful Data 8: Foundations of Data Science course became a scalable model for modern computing education. Eric explains how connector courses and Jupyter notebooks help students from every major learn to code, work with real datasets, and think computationally. Then the conversation turns to small language models (SLMs) and what it means for students to actually “touch the model” - changing parameters, inspecting weights, and understanding tokens and temperature from the inside. Together, they sketch a vision for AI education in public universities: shared “AI sandbox” infrastructure, open tools, and a plan for teaching AI basics. Chapters[0:00-4:05] Chapter 1 - Introduction: Is UC Berkeley's Data 8 the Blueprint for AI Education?[4:06-13:52] Chapter 2 - Inside Berkeley’s Data Science “Connector Course” Ecosystem[13:53-18:03] Chapter 3 - Jupyter Notebooks: Breaking the Textbook Paradigm with Live Code[18:04-26:12] Chapter 4 - SLMs vs. LLMs: Why Smaller is Better for Teaching[26:13-28:45] Chapter 5 - If AI Does the Work, What Skills Are Left?[28:46-34:04] Chapter 6 - Why Public Universities Need an AI Sandbox[34:05-37:44] Chapter 7 - on “Touching the Models” and Public Infrastructure[37:45-40:20] Chapter 8 - Hey Nvidia! We’re not just consumers. [40:21-46:43] Chapter 9 - How AI Can Actually Make Teaching Better[46:44-50:37] Chapter 10 - A Model for AI Literacy Education: Applying the Berkeley Data Model to AI Studies[50:38-52:09] Chapter 11 - Join the Conversation on AI in Higher EdMy Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, sponsored by the California Education Learning Lab, and produced by editaudio. Video Editing by Starline Hodge, Audio Editing by Megan Hayward, and our Production Manager is Kathleen Speckert.📄 Full transcripts available on Substack: https://calearninglab.org/myrobotteacher/🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai📨 Email us! We'd love to hear from you! [email protected]🔔 Subscribe for Extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher🎧 Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-robot-teacher/id1818032413Follow us on:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrobotteacher/YouTube: youtube.com/@myrobotteacherX: x.com/myrobotteacherBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/myrobotteacher.bsky.socialFacebook: facebook.com/myrobotteacherTags/KeywordsAI in Education, Higher Education, Data Science, UC Berkeley, Data 8, Eric Van Dusen, Small Language Models, Jupyter Notebooks, EdTech, Artificial Intelligence, Python, SLM vs LLM, Connector Courses, AI Literacy, Public Education, Computational Thinking, Cal State University, CSU, My Robot Teacher Podcast, Sarah Senk, Taiyo Inoue, California Education Learning Lab, AI Infrastructure, Open Source Education, editaudio

Ep07 - Shaping the AI Narrative in Higher Education | Sci-Fi, ChatGPT & the Stories in Our Heads 13.11.2025 57min

AI in higher education, ChatGPT on campus, and Hollywood sci-fi all collide in this conversation with Jason Goldman.When our students say they’re afraid to use their CSU-issued ChatGPT EDU account because it might be a sting operation, what stories about technology are already living in their heads?In this episode of My Robot Teacher, Sarah and Taiyo sit down with Jason Goldman – co-host of the film podcast Escape Hatch (formerly Dune Pod), early Twitter employee, and former Chief Digital Officer of the White House – to unpack how Hollywood has shaped the way we think (and panic) about AI and its impact on our classrooms.Together, they trace the path from Terminator, WarGames, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Her to ChatGPT EDU accounts in the CSU system to explore why Skynet-style apocalypse dominates faculty fears, what that narrative makes us miss (like quiet surveillance and parasocial attachment to chatbots), and where genuine educational benefits might actually lie.Along the way, they discuss:• Why Skynet is still a decent shorthand for the AI alignment problem• What the “Torment Nexus” paradox reveals about tech culture and Silicon Valley• How first-principles thinking can obscure slow, structural harms• Parasocial attachment to AI companions, “AI therapy,” and mental-health risks• Surveillance that doesn’t look like cameras, but like behavioral profiling and mood tracking• What “public interest AI” might mean for universities and higher ed governanceFor educators, this episode asks a core question: What narratives about AI are living in our heads – and how do they shape the stories we pass on to students?⚠️ Content note: This episode includes discussion of suicide and self-harm in the context of AI safety and platform responsibility.#AIinEducation #ChatGPT #HigherEd #SciFi #JasonGoldman #MyRobotTeacherCHAPTER TIMESTAMPS0:00 - 4:25 Chapter 1: AI Teddy Bears, Paperclip Nightmares, Faculty Fears4:26 - 10:40 Chapter 2: Jason Goldman on Twitter, Google & Building the Social Web10:41 - 20:27 Chapter 3: Apocalyptic AI: Terminator, WarGames, and Alignment Tropes20:28 - 37:21 Chapter 4: Her, Parasocial Attachments, and Invisible Surveillance 37:22 - 51:18 Chapter 5: Post-Tax Tech Bros, Silicon Valley, and Public Interest Universities51:19 - 57:52 Chapter 6: What Educators Can Do To Shape AI Narratives in Higher EdMy Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, sponsored by the California Education Learning Lab, and produced by editaudio. Video Editing by Starline Hodge, Audio Editing by Megan Hayward, and our Production Manager is Kathleen Speckert.📄 Full transcripts available on Substack: https://calearninglab.org/myrobotteacher/🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai📨 Email us! We'd love to hear from you! [email protected]🔔 Subscribe for Extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher🎧 Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-robot-teacher/id1818032413Follow us on:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrobotteacher/YouTube: youtube.com/@myrobotteacherX: x.com/myrobotteacherBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/myrobotteacher.bsky.socialFacebook: facebook.com/myrobotteacherTags/Keywords: Jason Goldman, AI in education, Terminator, Her, War Games, 2001 Space Odyssey, Silicon Valley, tech culture, social media, surveillance, parasocial relationships, ChatGPT, California State University, CSU, alignment problem, public interest technology, Sarah Senk, Taiyo Inoue, California Education Learning Lab, My Robot Teacher, editaudio, Escape Hatch podcast

Ep06 - Algorithms Aren’t Neutral: Safiya Noble on AI, Bias, and Building Public‑Interest Technology 23.10.2025 55min

Generative AI is reshaping classrooms and campuses, but with whose values, and at what cost? In this episode, Safiya Umoja Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression and founder of the UCLA Center on Resilience and Digital Justice, joins Sarah and Taiyo to unpack why “neutral” AI isn’t neutral, why interdisciplinarity is hard but essential, and what a public‑interest technology ecosystem in higher ed could look like.My Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, sponsored by the California Education Learning Lab, and produced by editaudio. Video Editing by Starline Hodge, Audio Editing by Megan Hayward, and our Production Manager is Kathleen Speckert.📄 Full transcripts available on Substack: https://calearninglab.org/myrobotteacher/ 🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai📨 Email us! We’d love to hear from you! [email protected]🔔 Subscribe for Extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher🎧 Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-robot-teacher/id1818032413Follow us on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrobotteacher/YouTube: youtube.com/@myrobotteacherX: x.com/myrobotteacherBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/myrobotteacher.bsky.socialFacebook: facebook.com/myrobotteacherTags/ Keywords: Safiya Noble, Algorithms of Oppression, AI, ChatGPT, algorithmic bias, California State University, CSU, future of learning, public interest technology, human-centered AI, Sarah Senk, Taiyo Inoue, Cal Poly Maritime Academy, California Education Learning Lab, My Robot Teacher, editaudio

Ep05 - Lost in Translation: Testing the Limits of AI Understanding 09.10.2025 39min

In this episode, we talk with Madison Van Doren (AI Research & Strategy Manager at Appen) about the limits of AI translation, what AI safety practices like red-teaming reveal about model guardrails, and why humans in the loop remain essential. Madison explains adversarial prompting, how different large language models reflect the norms and incentives of their builders, and why common translation benchmarks reward surface accuracy while missing cultural nuance. At stake is a larger question: if AI mirrors our words but not our meanings, how can we trust it to serve as a safe partner in education and communication?We also explore big questions for educators and students:What skills should humans still master in an AI-saturated world?What tasks can responsibly be offloaded to machines?How should we redefine digital literacy for the age of generative AI?CHAPTERS0:00-1:30 - Chapter 1 Cold Open: Testing AI’s Limits1:31-6:54 - Chapter 2: The Trouble with Teaching Machines Language6:55-15:26 - Chapter 3: Adversarial Prompting: Breaking Models on Purpose15:27-16:37 - Chapter 4 [Bridge]: Norms in, Norms Out16:38-28:05 - Chapter 5 - Translation vs Localization: How Benchmarks Can Mislead 28:06-35:19 - Chapter 6 - Humans in the Loop, New Literacies35:20-39:04 - Chapter 7 - Closing Reflections: Endless Iteration, Evolving Language, and the Geopolitics of AIMy Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue, sponsored by the California Learning Lab, and produced by editaudio. Video Editing by Starline Hodge, Audio Editing by Megan Hayward, and our Production Manager is Kathleen Speckert.📄 Full transcript: https://calearninglab.substack.com/p/my-robot-teacher-episode-5-transcript🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai📨 Email us! We’d love to hear from you! [email protected]🔔 Subscribe for Extras: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher🎧 Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-robot-teacher/id1818032413Follow us on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrobotteacher/YouTube: youtube.com/@myrobotteacherX: x.com/myrobotteacherBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/myrobotteacher.bsky.socialFacebook: facebook.com/myrobotteacherTags/ Keywords: Large Language Models (LLMs), AI translation, AI localization, AI safety, Red-teaming AI, Adversarial prompting, Digital Literacy, AI in the classroom, Humans in the loop, AI misbehavior and guardrails, AI and cultural nuance, Teaching with ChatGPT, AI literacy for students and educators, Madison Van Doren, Appen, Linguistics, future of learning, human-centered AI, Sarah Senk, Taiyo Inoue, Cal Poly Maritime Academy, California Education Learning Lab, My Robot Teacher, editaudio

Ep04 - A New Hope [for AI in College Writing] 04.09.2025 41min

How do we teach writing in the age of ChatGPT? On My Robot Teacher, hosts Taiyo Inoue and Sarah Senk talk with Carl Whithaus (Professor of Writing & Rhetoric; Director, University Writing Program, UC Davis) and Aparna Sinha (Associate Professor of Composition & Rhetoric, Cal Poly Maritime) about how AI is reshaping the composition classroom, and how educators can use LLMs to support critical thinking, metacognition, and student agency without flattening student voice.Key topics include:AI Literacy: Why teaching AI is like teaching sex ed: avoidance only creates more problems.Process Over Product: Designing meaningful writing assignments that keep students invested.Reflection & Metacognition: Helping students evaluate AI feedback, spot bias, and make informed choices.The Future of Writing: From interdisciplinarity to multimodal literacies in a possible “post-literate” world.00:00-2:51 Chapter 1 - Why Meaningful Assignments Beat AI Shortcuts2:52-17:38 Chapter 2 - AI Literacy is the New Sex Ed17:39-30:15 Chapter 3 - Foundational Skills30:16-36:44 Chapter 4 - Why Writing Still Matters (and how to make it Mean Something)36:45-41:40 Chapter 5 - Can We Imagine a Post-Literate non-Dystopian World?🔔 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher🎧 Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-robot-teacher/id1818032413📝 Read full transcripts + extras: https://calearninglab.substack.com/s/my-robot-teacher-podcast🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai📨 Email us! We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] us on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrobotteacher/YouTube: youtube.com/@myrobotteacherX: x.com/myrobotteacherBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/myrobotteacher.bsky.socialFacebook: facebook.com/myrobotteacherTags/ Keywords: AI in education, AI writing tools, teaching with AI, AI literacy, critical thinking, equity in education, composition pedagogy, code-meshing, ChatGPT in the classroom, higher education podcast, college writing, ChatGPT, generative AI, teaching and learning, peer feedback, UC Davis University Writing Program, Cal Poly Maritime Academy, PAIRR, California Education Learning Lab, Carl Whithaus, Aparna Sinha, Taiyo Inoue, Sarah Senk, My Robot Teacher, future of learning, editaudio

Ep03 - The End of Literacy As We Know It - How ChatGPT Exposed What's Broken in Education 12.08.2025 48min

What happens when AI forces us to confront what's broken about education? In this eye-opening conversation, Linguistics professor Pranav Anand (UC Santa Cruz) and English & Ethnic Studies professor Chesa Caparas (De Anza College) join Sarah and Taiyo, and argue that the panic over student "cheating" with ChatGPT is missing the real crisis.Spoiler alert: The problem isn't that students are using AI - it's that our entire educational system has been designed around assessments that a machine can now ace in seconds. From the death of the five-paragraph essay to why "AI-proof" assignments are impossible, this episode challenges everything you think you know about teaching in the age of artificial intelligence.Discover why Humanities professors might be the secret weapon against AI manipulation, how emotional literacy became more important than technical skills, and why the future of education isn't about stopping AI - it's about fundamentally reimagining what learning actually means.00:00 - 1:55 Chapter 1 Introduction1:55 - 15:02 Chapter 2 AI Literacy and Humanities Inquiry15:03 - 31:35 Chapter 3 “What the Hell is Education For?” 31:35 - 37:54 Chapter 4 The End of Writing as We Know It37:54 - 48:16 Chapter 5 The New Critical Thinking Debate🔔 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@myrobotteacher🎧 Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-robot-teacher/id1818032413📝 Read full transcripts + extras: https://calearninglab.substack.com/s/my-robot-teacher-podcast🌐 More about the show: https://www.myrobotteacher.ai📨 Email us! We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] us on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrobotteacher/YouTube: youtube.com/@myrobotteacherX: x.com/myrobotteacherBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/myrobotteacher.bsky.socialFacebook: facebook.com/myrobotteacherTags/ Keywords: AI literacy, Humanities, Higher Education, ChatGPT technology, podcast, generative AI, teaching, learning, assessment, critical thinking, Pranav Anand, Chesa Caparas, Taiyo Inoue, Sarah Senk, My Robot Teacher, future of writing, future of learning, editaudio

Ep02 - Higher Education in the Age of AI: Rethinking Teaching and Learning with ChatGPT 08.07.2025 48min

What does AI mean for how we teach and learn? In this episode of My Robot Teacher, we explore how ChatGPT is reshaping higher education.In this episode of My Robot Teacher, co-hosts Taiyo Inoue and Sarah Senk share real stories and critical reflections on using ChatGPT and other large language models in higher education.What becomes newly possible - and newly questionable - when thinking itself is distributed across humans and machines? We explore how AI is transforming writing instruction, interdisciplinary collaboration, coding, policy work, and even the value of drudgery.Whether you’re skeptical, curious, or knee-deep in prompt engineering, this episode offers insight into how educators are adapting to the age of AI - and why the future of higher education depends on how we choose to engage with it..🧠 Featuring:Practical classroom tips for integrating AIReflections on academic integrity in the ChatGPT eraCross-disciplinary collaboration using LLMsTime-saving hacks for faculty service workDeep questions about writing, learning, and human thoughtTranscript available:https://calearninglab.substack.com/s/my-robot-teacher-podcastMore info: https://calearninglab.org/myrobotteacher/My Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue and produced by editaudio. Video Editing by Starline Hodge, Audio Editing by Megan Hayward, and our Production Manager is Kathleen Speckert. My Robot Teacher is funded by the California Education Learning Lab, which supports faculty-led projects that leverage technology tools and the science of human learning to foster student success in online and hybrid learning environments.Tags: ChatGPT, AI in education, higher education, teaching with AI, AI tools for educators, large language models, prompt engineering, AI writing, faculty development, interdisciplinary collaboration, educational technology, edtech, digital pedagogy, college teaching, academic integrity, critical thinking, writing instruction, general education, My Robot Teacher

Ep01 - Resistance is Futile - and Brief 11.06.2025 25min

What happens when ChatGPT crashes into the classroom?In this premiere episode of My Robot Teacher, Cal State University (CSU) professors Taiyo Inoue and Sarah Senk explore how faculty across public universities are reacting to the rise of generative AI in education. From panic to pedagogical adaptation, we dig into what resistance to AI really looks like - and why it often gives way to something stranger: habituation.We talk about how large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are reshaping teaching, trust, and the purpose of assignments themselves. This isn’t just about prompts. It’s about power, policy, and the future of public higher ed.In this episode: We take Yale’s Ben Glaser on a ride in a Waymo driverless car Talk about UX, AI adaptation, and design thinking with Hana Zeydens (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) Hear reflections from Cal Maritime faculty and leadership on how AI is already impacting themKeywords: AI in education, ChatGPT in the classroom, generative AI and higher ed, resistance to AI, teaching with ChatGPT, AI panic, large language models, autonomous vehicles, Waymo, CSU professors, public universities and AI, AI in public education, education after the prompt, pedagogy and AI, higher education and AI disruption, future of learningTranscript available:https://calearninglab.substack.com/s/my-robot-teacher-podcastMore info:https://calearninglab.org/myrobotteacher/My Robot Teacher is hosted by Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue and produced by editaudio. Video Editing by Starline Hodge, Audio Editing by Megan Hayward, and our Production Manager is Kathleen Speckert.

Trailer 02.06.2025 1min

Faculty insiders Sarah Senk and Taiyo Inoue unpack how generative AI is reshaping higher ed policy, pedagogy, and ethics - without the jargon. Follow for sharp insight and dry wit.Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, AI, ChatGPT, tech, Waymo, science and technology, AI and Humanity, Education, HigherEd, Future Of Learning, Sarah Senk, Taiyo Inoue, editaudio, MLOps, Machine Learning, Generative AI, Artificial Superintelligence, AI Takeover, AI2027, My Robot Teacher Podcast

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